How do you eat an Elephant?

This is one of my favourite pictures. Not because we did Naihanchi 100 times like this together, not because i have a super cool stance (because i don't) and not because i look especially stylish (i'll work on my mean karate face) but because every time i look at it, i'm reminded of what (in my opinion)  makes up the essence of being a part of an Okinawan Karate dojo is all about. What has drawn me in and is keeping me here. 

　空手　兄弟

(Karate Kyoudai)

絆

(Kizuna)

When i arrived at the dojo i didn't speak any Japanese and was out here by myself (on the whole). I was the odd one that wasn't a karate visitor that had come to train and i'm  not a native Okinawan that has come to start training. I didn't fit in. Which is difficult because Japanese like things to fit together and this  situation didn't. 

I remember feeling incredibly isolated; i couldn't understand the conversations and the rest of the dojo wouldn't really talk to me- i think simply because they couldn't- the dojo atmosphere as a whole felt as though there was this incredible force field and bond that they had- the ways they spoke to each other, the way the hierarchy worked, the way they trained together. 

I wanted in, but i also wanted out. 

It seemed impossible to be really a part of this, i was stuck between two dojo.

I could have taken the easy route and gone back to England, but my instinct told me to stay just a bit longer. 

And so-

I kept going back. They thought i would leave. 

Sensei asked me a lot when i would be going back to England and if i was homesick and when my Sensei was coming to get me.

I stayed. 

I'd say it took around 5 months of nearly every single day training- sometimes twice a day before the wall started coming down. Even then it was hard.

Sensei started to learn some more English. I started to learn more Japanese. They realised i wasn't going anywhere and i'm in it for the long haul. They (not just sensei- the rest of the dojo) started teaching me with miming and simple Japanese they knew i might understand. Or told me just to copy them. They started teaching me things i'd never seen before- philosophy and principles as opposed to kata and kihon.

I kept going

A friend gave me a good new idea today that sums it all up perfectly:

 'How do you eat an Elephant? 

One bite at a time

 - that's what it was- 

One class at a time. 

Now-  over 2 years later i feel like i'm a part of that unbreakable dojo family (空手　兄弟) with those bonds (絆) that keep us together, as the years go by it gets stronger and stronger.

Now the Senpai are hard on me- because they care?!! I am kohai after all. 

They give me their time and teach me what they've learnt- lots of people don't and won't get that.

I think i understand why sensei is telling me not to be a 'butterfly' and fly between dojo- 

because what I've got and been able to be a part of inside the dojo is incredibly special and strong. 

I know that no matter how hard they are on me inside the dojo- they'll be there for me. 

I'm guessing all the dojo in Okinawa (and around the world to some extent) have this and i know already from experience that being a part of two dojo isn't really viable- nor would i want to do the first five months- or even last two years as a whole- over again. 

Visiting other dojo is OK as far as i'm aware but i think we all know the 'visitors' arent taught the same things as the actual members (that's a whole new topic for another day) and so my journey and questions continue. 

In the picture, i'm surrounded by my Senpai (and Sensei) which did not come easily. 

I never imagined i'd be here and so it  is probably the coolest place in the world to be and i wouldn't want to be anywhere else.